The Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) integrates sustainability issues that focus on the science and technology of polymeric materials into research, education, and public outreach initiatives. Members of the center concentrate their research efforts on harnessing the renewable, functional, degradable and non-toxic ingredients provided by Nature for tomorrow's advanced plastics, foams, adhesives, elastomers, coatings and other macromolecular materials. To foster innovation the CSP partners with numerous companies that develop, implement, and advance technologies in the sustainable polymer industry. In addition to the research mission of the CSP, members also foster outreach activities to educate future scientists and the public about the science and technology of sustainability. For a two-page overview of center activities, click here.

Highlights

2015 CSP Annual Meeting

The 2015 CSP Annual Meeting is scheduled for April 21-22, 2015 in Minneapolis, MN. This exciting event brings together all center members from the University of Minnesota, University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University, and the Unversity of Waterloo for exciting scientific presentations and discussions. More Information

Making Plastic Greener Through Next Generation Polymers

Through an ACS-sponsored webinar, CSP Director, Marc Hillmyer, will provide an overview of current research in the field of sustainable polymers on March 5th from 1:00 – 2:00 PM (CST). Click here for more information and to register! (Note: Presentation is intended for a scientific audience.)

2014 Education Minnesota Teacher’s Conference

This fall, the Education Minnesota Teacher’s conference was held at Saint Paul River Centre. CSP faculty and representatives from Beyond Benign presented and shared some K-12 curricular resources, as well as hands-on activities that demonstrated how green chemistry topics could be taught in the K-12 classroom. In this photo, Dr Jane Wissinger demonstrates to the group.

Partner Institutions

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Center for Sustainable Polymers CHE-1413862. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

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Recent News and Events

The CSP is highlighted in a new Live Science article about plastics made from plants, read it here!

CSP Director Marc Hillmyer received a prestigous McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair by University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler.